Indeed, Favreau let Chung in on the action. The filmmaker ended up directing “The Mandalorian” season 3 episode “The Convert,” which was a well-regarded homage of sorts to George Lucas’ “THX 1138.” Lucasfilm liked what he did with that, and brought Chung back to direct an episode of “Skeleton Crew,” which is expected to arrive later this year. That’s when Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy started to become a big fan of his work.

That relationship is what ultimately built the bridge to “Twisters.” Kennedy is married to a key “Twisters” producer, the legendary Frank Marshall, which gave Chung an “in” as they were looking for a director to take on the project. That, coupled with his work on “Minari,” was ultimately enough to win him the job. As Chung explained:

“Ashley Jay Sandberg at Kennedy/Marshall was specifically looking for a filmmaker who is from the region and could understand the sense of place. So I think that was what they were looking at. I had also worked with Kathleen Kennedy on a couple of Lucasfilm shows, and she served as a reference for what I had done for them, so that helped a lot too.”

It looks like things all worked out well. The film has been receiving largely positive reviews, with /Film’s Jeremy Mathai calling “Twisters” a satisfying, crowd-pleasing ’90s throwback. The film stars Glen Powell (“Anyone But you”), Daisy Edgar-Jones (“Where the Crawdads Sing”), Anthony Ramos (“Transformers: Rise of the Beasts”), David Corenswet (“Pearl), and Kiernan Shipka (“Chilling Adventures of Sabrina”).

“Twisters” is in theaters now.